


wonder by wonder

by DizzyRedhead



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Friends to Lovers, M/M, Telepathy, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, cryptid!Dex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 17:39:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13058904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyRedhead/pseuds/DizzyRedhead
Summary: On a late-night walk to the Pond, Derek discovers a secret.





	wonder by wonder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alex (all_ivvant)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/all_ivvant/gifts).



> For Alex, who asked for Cryptid!Dex. This is a little different from the suggestion you gave, but I hope you like it anyway!!!
> 
> Title from "A Whole New World" because Disney songs were a formative influence.

Derek knows, even as he slips out of the Haus, that he should be asleep. But he just can't settle tonight for whatever reason, his brain spinning out of control. He's tried everything else; maybe a walk, moving through the cool darkness of campus, will be enough to quiet his mind long enough for him to fall asleep. 

As he strolls down the sidewalk, hands in his jacket pockets, he realises it’s a gorgeous night. A little chilly for August, but not too bad, with just enough breeze to rustle the leaves in the trees as he passes and send a few swirling down to him. It's the kind of night when it's easy to believe in magic, in  _ more things in heaven and earth _ than the ordinary world allows you to dream of.

His feet carry him toward the Pond without any conscious decision, but there's nothing wrong with that. He didn't have any particular destination in mind, and the Pond will probably be beautiful under the light of the moon. Maybe he can figure out something for one of his assignments, explore a nature theme for a change.

Within a few minutes he's close enough to see the moonlight reflecting off the water, to hear the soft splash of the little waves against the banks of the Pond. He's not hurrying, exactly, but now that he knows where he's going he walks with more purpose, his steps a little faster and more confident than his previous lazy amble. 

His favorite tree looks a little different at night, but it's still comforting to lean against. Derek stares out across the Pond and just loses himself a little in the moment, in the serene beauty of the scene in front of him. 

The breeze has picked up a little, a few clouds moving across the sky in a stately parade. Maybe it's going to storm soon; there could be something in that he could get a poem out of. He turns words and phrases over idly in his head, watching the ripples travel across the surface of the water. 

It's almost not surprising when the head breaks the surface. The creature looks like a part of the scene, something unusual and otherworldly.  _ Dragon _ , some part of Derek's mind thinks absently, before it catches up to the fact that a dragon is most definitely not something he should be seeing in the middle of the Samwell campus.

He blinks once, twice, but the dragon-creature-whatever doesn't disappear. It's actually swimming closer, coming in for a landing on the shore about fifty feet to Derek's right. He stands frozen, unable to move, unable to believe that this is actually happening.

It slithers up onto the shore - more, he thinks vaguely, like an Asian water dragon than anything from Western mythology - with a long, snake-like body. It shivers a little, water droplets shaking free. The air seems to shimmer around it, and then the serpent body is gone, replaced by a naked, human figure.

A very familiar naked human figure. Derek's eyes widen, because of all the people he might have expected to see a giant water snake turn into, his roommate is probably at the bottom of the list.

"Dex?" he croaks, his voice rusty and strange.

Dex's head whips around, his eyes as wide and shocked as Derek's must be in the moonlight. "Nursey?"

They stand there in silence for awhile, neither of them able or willing to break it, until finally Derek blurts out, "Do you need clothes?"

It must be the right thing to say, or not the wrong one, anyway, because Dex laughs, a little hysterically. But at least it gets that hunted look off his face, so Derek counts it as a win. 

When he can speak without laughing, he shakes his head. "Yeah, I guess I should get dressed, huh?" 

He steps over to a tree closer to Derek, squatting down and unzipping a backpack Derek hadn't noticed in the dark. He pulls out a towel, drying himself unselfconsciously, then tucks it away and pulls out a small bundle of clothes.

Derek turns away when he realizes he's staring like he's never seen a naked boy in his life, but he can still see Dex's movements out of the corner of his eye. It's just so surreal. He can't escape the feeling that if he takes his eyes off Dex for a minute, his roommate will disappear like a figment of his imagination.

"Okay, I'm decent," Dex says finally, his voice still rich with amusement. "You can stop averting your eyes."

When Derek looks back, Dex looks just like he always has. Stupid old-man haircut, adorable sticky-out ears, freckles that Derek can barely see in the dim light. His flannel shirt still barely fits across his shoulders, his jeans are still old and worn above his also old but well-loved work boots. He looks like Dex. He doesn't look like some sort of water-dragon-thing.

"What the actual fuck?" Derek means for it to come out--well, different from what it does. He means it to be calm, cool, a request for information. Instead it's almost pleading, begging Dex to help him make sense of the way everything he knows has been turned upside down.

Dex just sighs. "It's a long story. Are you hungry?"

Derek opens his mouth to say no, but his stomach chooses that moment to remind him that he'd been too busy studying to eat more than a couple of microwaved frozen burritos for dinner. "I, uh, I could eat."

"Cool." Dex starts walking back in the direction of the Haus. "Midnight feast time."

Derek follows dumbly in his wake. What else is he going to do? 

* * *

Derek manages to keep his questions stuffed down during the drive through the sleeping streets of Samwell, while they're getting settled into the cracked vinyl seats of the diner booth. He gives the menu a cursory look even though he already knows he's going to get the same thing he always does, waits impatiently while the waitress takes their order and brings their drinks.

Finally, though, finally they're alone, and he fixes Dex with an impatient glare. “Dude. What the fuck?”

Dex sighs turning his water glass around in his hands. "So I'm assuming you've heard of Nessie."

"Chyeah, everyone's heard of Nessie," Derek says automatically. "Wait, are you saying you're Nessie? How old are you?"

Dex shakes his head. "No, Nurse, I'm not Nessie. Jesus. What do they teach you at that fancy private school, anyway?"

Derek throws his hands up in the air, only barely remembering to keep his voice down. "Well, I don't fucking know. I just saw a freaking--sea serpent or whatever roll up out of the Pond and turn into my fucking roommate. I don't know what the fuck is going on!"

"Fair enough," Dex concedes, the corners of his mouth curling up into a little smile. "So I'm not Nessie. Probably some kind of distant relation, but nobody in my family knows for sure. I guess 'sea serpent' is an accurate enough description. We like oceans, but any body of water will do in a pinch."

Derek stares, waiting for more, but it seems like that's all that's forthcoming. "Wait, that's it? How often do you need to be in water? Have you been changing your whole life? Do you eat raw fish when you're all serpent-y? What about--"

"Slow down, Tango," Dex laughs. "Sorry, I'm not really used to talking about this with people, you know?"

"I guess that makes sense," Derek allows. 

Any further explanations are interrupted by the waitress arriving with their orders; waffles with a side of bacon and eggs for Derek, an omelet stuffed with every kind of filling conceivable for Dex, the meat and cheese and veggies spilling out the sides.

Derek covers his waffle with syrup, cutting off a piece with his fork. It's halfway to his mouth when something occurs to him. "Am I, like, allowed to know this about you?"

"I can't exactly change the past," Dex tells him tartly, not looking up from his own plate.

"And you can't, like wipe my brain or something?"

"No, Derek," Dex says with exaggerated patience. "I can't wipe your brain. Literally my only trick is turning into a giant aquatic snake. That's it. Just don't go selling pictures to the tabloids and we'll call it even."

Derek looks at him for a long moment, but he can't detect anything but weary sincerity in Dex's face or voice. "I wouldn't do that."

"I know," Dex says, his voice softening. "Now can I eat this before it gets cold if I promise to answer all of your questions?"

"I guess," Derek drawls, dragging it out to make Dex laugh.

It works, Dex's eyes lighting up with it as he shakes his head. Derek sits there, bite of waffle still frozen in midair, because apparently this is the night when sudden realizations slap him in the face.

"What?"

Derek shakes his head, stuffing the waffle in his mouth. "Nuffing," he mumbles around the mouthful.

Dex makes a face, successfully distracted, and Derek cuts off another bite for himself, focusing on getting the cuts exactly in the raised ridges of the waffle. Not on the surrealness of this entire night. Not on the fact that he's eating breakfast food at 2 am in a diner with an actual honest-to-god cryptid. Not on the fact that said cryptid is his roommate, his defensive partner, and one of his best friends.

Not on the fact that Derek is more interested in making him smile than finding out the details of his cryptid status.

Yup. Nothing to see here.

* * *

"So nobody else knows?" Derek asks as he closes the passenger door of Dex's car, not examining his reluctance to head back to the Haus. "Nobody on the team, I mean?"

Dex shrugs. "They don't really offer scholarships for being nonhuman. My parents weren't super thrilled about me coming to school somewhere so far away from the coast, but we don't need saltwater. I think they were more worried about not having an easy escape route, but this isn't Puritan New England. Nobody's going to burn me at the stake."

"I dunno, man, I could see the lax bros getting into that."

That gets another laugh out of Dex, and seriously, when did Derek start trying to find ways to make Dex laugh? How long has this been going on?

"But yeah," Dex says as they turn onto Jason Street. "You're the only one."

"I feel so special," Derek tells him, mock-solemn in a way that's maybe probably absolutely sincere. God. He's so fucked. "Seriously, though. I won't tell anybody."

Dex parks the car and kills the engine, turning to look at him with eyes that are somehow completely serious. "I know you won't. I, uh, I kind of wanted to tell you, but I kept losing my nerve. I mean, how do you start that conversation?"

Derek nods. "Yeah, I don't know, man. But I'm glad I know now. Is there anything I can do? To make it easier?"

He can't be sure, with nothing but moonlight and the dim glow of the nearest streetlight to see by, but he's pretty sure Dex is blushing a little. "I don't think so? I'm pretty well set. But--"

"But?" Derek prompts after a few minutes of silence.

"If you, uh, if you wanted to come with me? Next time I go for a swim? Not to swim, I mean, not if you don't want to. It's getting kind of chilly for that, for humans. But--"

"I'd love to," Derek blurts out. "If you're sure you don't mind."

Dex shrugs, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. "I don't mind. We usually all swim together, or at least a few at a time. It's been--weird, being the only one."

_ Lonely _ . Derek's mind supplies the word Dex is dancing around. He swallows around the lump in his throat. "I'd love to," he repeats, willing as much sincerity into his voice as possible. 

"Chill," Dex says, his eyes sparkling with mischief.

"I knew I'd win you over, Poindexter," Derek crows, grateful for the change of subject. 

When Dex rolls his eyes, he knows for sure. Cryptid status and strange revelations aside, they're going to be okay.

* * *

It's an unseasonably warm Friday a couple of weeks later, the windows of their room open to catch any hint of a breeze, and Derek has almost, almost forgotten under the weight of practice and class and the minutia of everyday life. So it takes him a moment, when Dex clatters up the stairs, dropping his backpack by the door, and says, elaborately casual, "Think I might go for a swim tonight."

"Okay," Derek says absently, three-quarters of his attention on the reading for his Literary Criticism class. Then, when the meaning of the words filters through. "Oh! Yeah?"

"Good night for it," Dex says, still not looking directly at him. "Warm. If you wanted--"

Derek nods, feeling his face heat a little, which is ridiculous. "Yeah, I mean, if you're still sure--"

"Yeah," Dex echoes, his cheeks going faintly pink, then clearing his throat. "It's a waxing moon. Should be plenty of light."

"Okay," Derek says, anticipation tingling through him as he forces his attention back to his computer screen.

Dex busies himself with something at his own desk, and it could be any other afternoon in the Haus, a familiar clatter rising from the kitchen, the sound of Chowder humming tunelessly from the other side of the wall. 

Derek can't help grinning at his computer, though. It could be any other afternoon, but it's not. There's more to life than homework and post-colonial criticism and getting enough protein. It's like a secret world opening up before him, one he shares with Dex. 

"I was thinking around eleven," Dex says quietly.

"Swawesome," Derek replies, equally softly. "I can't wait."

* * *

No one is asleep when they slip out of the Haus at almost midnight, but it's quieter, all the same. Chowder and Farmer are taking advantage of one of the last free weekends before the season starts for some quality date night time and Ollie and Wicks left earlier after a brief attempt to convince anyone to come with them to some sorority party. Whiskey, Tango, and Ford had apparently planned some kind of Netflix marathon but have long since been co-opted into playing sous chefs for Bitty.

So it’s just a matter of walking down the steps and out the door, no one really noticing their exit. Not that there is anything inherently suspicious about what they’re doing, Derek reminds himself. They’re both dressed normally and carrying backpacks, looking for all the world like they’re headed to Founders for a late night study session. 

They don't talk as they walk toward campus, but it's a comfortable silence. Dex's steps quicken the closer they get to the Pond, just a little, but enough that Derek has to walk faster to match his pace. And then they're there, the water rippling in the moonlight. Dex does a quick survey of their surroundings before shucking his backpack off, nestling it between the roots of Derek's favorite tree and peeling his shirt up over his head. 

Derek looks away hastily, locker room habits kicking in, and squats down to run his fingers through the water. 

It's cool, but not as cold as he was expecting, the top layer still almost warm from the sun beaming down on it all day. 

"Coming in?" Dex asks, the water splashing around his bare legs as he wades in.

"Uh, yeah," Derek responds, trying not to stare at Dex's calves, knotted with muscle, pale and almost glowing in the moonlight. "It's not too bad."

Dex wades deeper, his knees disappearing under the water. Derek tears his eyes away before he sees something he won't be able to unsee, backing up to leave his backpack next to Dex's and toe off his shoes. 

He'd put on swim trunks under his jeans before they left, so all he has to do is strip out of his t-shirt and jeans, tucking them inside his backpack in a wadded ball he'll probably regret later. He's distracted by the electric feeling in the air, the fact that the Dex in the corner of his vision has disappeared.

Sure enough, when he looks, the familiar dragon-head is bobbing above the water, eyeing him with what looks like impatience. "I'm coming!" he says softly, aware of the way sound carries across the water, of the fact that not all the students are going to be partying off campus, even this early in the semester.

Dragon-Dex snorts quietly, a sound even more impatient than the look. 

Derek takes the few steps from the tree to the edge of the water, hissing in a breath when the water laps cool against his toes. But Dex snorts again, shifting in a way that makes the water slosh around his ankles, so he forces himself in until he's waist-deep and questioning all of his life choices. 

He startles when Dex moves closer, within arm's reach. He hadn't had a good view last time, or a good sense of perspective. Dex's dragon-body is almost as thick around as Derek's waist, at least the part that's visible above the water, covered in tiny dark scales that shimmer just slightly in the moonlight. He reaches out to touch without thinking, yanking his hand back just before it makes contact.

"Sorry, bro," he babbles, sticking the offending hand behind his back like a toddler that can't be trusted to remember. "I shouldn't--"

The words die in his throat when Dex moves closer, nudging under his other hand, for all the world like a cat demanding to be petted. "Oh. Okay. Wow. I thought you'd be more scaly-feeling?"

_ I'm not actually a snake,  _ a familiar voice says.  _ But I guess I can see where you'd think that. _

"What." Derek blinks his eyes rapidly, the part of his brain that processes weird shit going into overload. "No, seriously, how are you talking to me right now? Your mouth didn't even move!"

_ This is how we communicate in the water, _ Dex says, his eyes sparkling with familiar mischief.  _ I wasn't sure it'd work with a human. I guess you're just weird enough to pick up on it, Nurse.  _

Derek shakes his head. “Okay. Sure. Why not.”

Dex circles him, the submerged part of his body brushing against Derek’s legs, the sensation like the rich, buttery feel of a leather book cover.  _ Are you going to come any deeper, or just stand there all night? _

“Hey, not all of us are optimized for underwater.” Derek shivers as a breeze rushes over the surface of the water. “It’s warmer than I thought, but it’s still chilly.”

_ You’ll feel warmer if most of you is under the water, _ Dex points out, nudging him in deeper.

“Yeah, but--”

The rest of Derek’s protest is cut off when Dex’s tail tightens around his legs, tugging just enough to knock his feet out from under him. He comes up sputtering, shaking his hair back out of his eyes. “Bro!”

_ You were saying you needed to wash your hair anyway, _ Dex returns, completely unrepentant.  _ You know it’s easier to adjust if you do it all at once. _

Derek huffs out a breath, but he can’t really argue. “Are you going to swim? Or spend all night hanging out in the shallows with me?”

It’s his imagination. It must be, because Dex only has one real facial expression in this form. But Derek would swear that he looks embarrassed, or tentative. Something.  _ Do you want to come with? _

“As I think I was just saying, plain old human body here,” Derek points out. “I don’t think I can keep up.”

_ If you hold on to me… _

Derek has to clear his throat. “If you’re chill with that?”

He gets the distinct feeling Dex wishes he could roll his eyes.  _ I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t.  _

“Just remember I need to breathe, okay?” 

_ Just grab on, Nurse. I promise not to pull a kelpie. _

“Oh, well,  _ that’s  _ reassuring.”

Derek reaches out hesitantly, unsure exactly how this is going to work. Dex twists in the water until he’s facing away.  _ Hold on just under my head. I’ll keep it out of the water, so you should be fine. _

“We are going to create the  _ weirdest _ urban legend if anybody sees us,” Derek mutters, doing as directed. Dex’s body is surprisingly warm against him, pleasantly so in contrast with the cool water. 

_ Probably. Legs too. _

It’s weird, wrapping his legs around Dex’s body and hooking his ankles together; Derek tries not to think too hard about it. “Okay, ready.” 

Derek braces himself, not sure what to expect, but the motion is so smooth that he almost doesn’t notice when it starts. Suddenly they’re sliding through the water, Dex’s body flexing sinuously between his legs--Derek cuts that train of thought off before it can go any further and focuses on the physical sensations. The slick caress of the water flowing over his skin, faster and faster as Dex picks up speed, the wind blowing cold through his wet hair, the radiant warmth of Dex’s body that almost keeps him from noticing the cold.

_ Doing okay? _

“This is amazing,” Derek says quietly, not sure how well Dex can hear with the sound of the water around them, but not wanting to yell. “It’s like I always thought flying would be.”

_ Me too.  _

Derek has no idea how many times they circle the Pond, how long they spend cutting through the water, speaking when they have something to say, falling silent when they don’t. It’s strangely meditative, like their best practices, when they’re so in sync that Dex feels like an extension of himself, always in the right place before Derek knows to look for him. 

Finally, though, Dex slows, sliding closer to the shore.  _ It’s late. _ His mental “voice” sounds as reluctant as Derek feels to leave the water, to end this strange, suspended moment.  _ We should probably be getting back. _

“Probably,” Derek agrees, hearing the same reluctance in his own voice. He lets go when Dex comes to a stop in the shallows, surprised by the ache in his limbs from holding on for so long. 

The wind feels cold on his wet skin after so long under the water, so long wrapped around Dex’s living heat. Derek splashes hastily up onto the shore, racing for his backpack and the towel he’d packed inside.

He misses the moment of transformation while he’s hastily toweling himself off. Suddenly Dex is there, pale and naked in the moonlight, rummaging for his own towel. They dress in silence and start back for the Haus, falling into step with an ease that Derek wouldn’t have believed during their freshman year.

The Haus is dark when they turn the corner onto Jason Street. “It must be later than I thought,” Derek says quietly.

Dex fishes his phone out of his pocket, turning the screen so Derek can see that it reads 2:42. “Yeah.”

It’s strange, hearing Dex’s voice out loud instead of in his head. “Guess we’ll have to be quiet.”

They slip upstairs in silence again, closing the door softly behind them. Derek reaches for the light switch, but freezes when a warm hand covers his own, holding his breath. Waiting.

_ I… _ Dex pauses, his Adam’s apple bobbing in the dim light coming in through the window.  _ I’m glad you were the one who saw me that night. I wanted to tell you. I just didn’t know how. But I wanted to. _

“Why?” Derek whispers, searching Dex’s face, afraid to hope for the answer he wants. 

A small, secret smile curves the corners of Dex’s mouth.  _ Because I wanted you to know about me before I asked if I could kiss you. _

“Yes,” Derek breathes, leaning in closer.

Dex’s free hand comes up to cradle the side of Derek’s face before he closes the last inch of space between them. And just like the rest of the evening, what should have been surreal just seems right. Inevitable. Like every step they’ve taken was always going to bring them here, to this moment, Dex’s lips warm and soft against his in the dark.

Derek never wants to stop kissing Dex, but being an ordinary human includes pesky requirements like breathing. And it turns out that this is good, too, their bodies pressed together, breathing each other’s air. 

But Derek’s brain can’t ever leave well enough alone, which is why he breaks the silence by blurting out “So are we dating now?”

Dex laughs. “I just took you for a moonlight swim, Nurse. And I bought you breakfast at the diner, and you bought coffee the last two times we went. We’ve been dating for weeks.”

“Oh.” Derek turns this information over, finds no flaws in it. “Chill.”

Dex rolls his eyes and leans in for another kiss. And yeah, Derek kind of wants to do this forever, but he’s been awake for over twenty hours at this point, as his body chooses this moment to remind him with a jaw-cracking yawn.

He’d feel more embarrassed except Dex yawns too, and then they’re both laughing, hands clapped over their mouths to keep from waking up the rest of the Haus. 

“Come on,” Dex whispers once they finally subside, taking Derek’s hand and pulling him toward the bunk beds. “Go to sleep. I’ll most likely kiss you in the morning.”

Derek wants to muster up a better response to that excellent Princess Bride reference but his whole body is basically magnetically attracted to his bed at this point. He manages to kick his shoes off before slipping under the blankets and holding up one edge, giving Dex the best pleading eyes he can when his eyes are trying to close. 

“Fine,” Dex huffs, peeling out of his jeans. “But I’m not moving before morning, I don’t care how many times I knee you in the kidneys.”

“‘S fine,” Derek murmurs, his eyes sliding closed. “Cuddles now.”

He’s almost asleep, wrapped in Dex’s warmth for the second time that night, when a thought occurs to him. “Dex?”

_ Mmmm? _

“I should write a book. ‘My Boyfriend is a Cryptid.’”

_ Go to  _ sleep. 

Derek does.

* * *

Dex kisses him in the morning. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you like dumb hockey players in love and a random mixture of stuff, you can [follow me on Tumblr](http://dizzy-redhead.tumblr.com).


End file.
